Data Recovery: Beginners Tips I

Right now you probably in a lot of mental pain, and all youre concerned about is recovering your data as quickly as possible - so well refrain from comments on the wisdom of regular back ups. The time for preventative measures has gone - the issue at hand is data recovery.

First - a simple tip could save you a lot of money. Take out your rolodex and get hold of your tech-savvy friends. If youre in luck, theyll offer to help, and if youre really lucky, they might even have some disk recovery software.

If youre out of luck, then get out your wallet or purse out now because this is going to cost you. Also, be prepared for a lot of time being wasted - data recovery can take a long time.

The first thing to establish is what exactly is wrong with your hard disk:

* Either your computer wont boot up, or
* Your computer boots up OK but you cant see one of your other drives.

Lets see if we can eliminate the worst scenario. Listen closely to your hard drive - is it making any sort of weird noise, such as scratching, scraping, ticking etc?

If so, then your drive is physically damaged and the only hope that you have is to take it to a data recovery service where experts might be able to get your data off for you. These services are expensive and time consuming - so you need to make a judgement call as to the value of data on the disk:

If its only your saved game data or downloaded music files you would like back, youre probably better off kicking yourself for not backing up, and accepting the data loss.

If, on the other hand, its a book or other type of information product that youve been working on for years, then send it to a data recovery service for an evaluation and quote - it usually costs nothing.

If your hard disk sounds OK, then you stand a decent chance of recovering data yourself.

Source : www.articlecircle.com/computers/data-recovery-beginners-tips.html